AAMCHI MUMBAI / City on When tour companies promised to get me in touch with the sout of my home town, I was intrigued, a little sceptical, but definitely game for it. After doing all these tours and seeing my city in a new light, I found that they familiarise tourists with easy and wonderful mix of different religions and cultures that co exist here as effortlessly as a bhelpuri, saysPria Agni 52 DISCOVER INDIA - APRIL 2009 wheels cutting chai tour Get a fatafat look at the city in four hours THERE is the slew of travel and tours companies like Sam-san travels, Swagatam tours, Indian Holidays, and Mumbai travels and tours that offer the usual half day and full Jay tours. The half-day tour, called the Mumbai cutting Chai (four hours), takes you around the city to enjoy sights like the Gateway of India, Assembly Hall, Secreatariat, Nariman Point, Marine Drive, Hanging Gardens, Kamla Nehru Park, Mahalaxmi Temple, Mani Bhavan, Chowpatty Beach, Jehangir Art Gallery, Prince of Wales Museum, Haji Ali Race Course and Nehru Planetorium. Gaining momentum are customised tours where travel consultants make your itinerary according to your convenience and it's the prerogative of tourists with limited time, to choose the sights of their liking. Says Naini Mehta of Namaste City Tours, "We get requests for a particular synagogue or Mumbai terrorist attack sites all the time. We seamlessly include these sites into our regular circuit and provide informed guides for these tours." Tour operators: Sam-San Travels, rel: +9122 23870880; and Indian Holidays, Rakesh at +919811204347 art & heritage tour — Take a heritage walk into Mumbai's sout This is a great way to explore Bombay's British history and architecture. When you walk you will see very closely amazing variety of historic land marks and buildings, constructed in different styles of architecture and built in a variety of local and imported materials. Tourists are taken through areas such as Colaba Market, Fort Area, Kala Ghoda District and Chhatrapati Shivaji Sta tion. The guide is a professional consultant who has indepth knowledge about every building and structure including its history and architecture. The heritage walk aims to raise the awareness of visitors and locals about the city's architecture and heritage monuments. Personalised, educa tive and imaginative, the walking tour highlights the vast range of architectural styles, planning elements and ornamental details, tracing the social and cultural history of the city. And to top it all, you are taken to visit Phillips antique store. This store houses some of the first recorded photographs of the city as it was then. The Karla Baja caves and Kanheri caves also feature on some circuits as do the Elephanta caves. Tour operator: Namaste City Tours, contact Naini Mehta/Kunal Vahalia at +91 9323652111/ +9122 23888711; www.namastecitytour.com / 1 market tour Find your stolen goods at Chor Bazaar! WHAT TOUR IS COMPLETE without taking home some mementos of your visit? The Market tours are another aspect of 'feel-and-touch' Mumbai that is gaining popularity. From the teeming Bhuleshwar, Chor Bazaar, Mirchi Gulli, Phool Gulli to Fashion Street one can shop for spices to silk sarees for bargain prices. Pick antiques and semi-precious stones from Colaba Causeway, old zari borders at Bhuleshwar and an array of jewellery at Zaveri Bazaar. Chor Bazaar off Mohammedali road is interesting in its quaint shops of itar and incense. Also on display are stolen goods, from old gramophones to Wood land shoes! There a popular joke about the bazaar that if something of yours gets stolen, you can buy it back at Chor Bazaar! The crowded lanes of suburban Bandra make for great bargain buys on all things Indian - from Kolhapuri chappals to kurtas and junk jew ellery. Lokhandwala market in the north offers garments from China, Korea, etc. at very rea sonable prices. You can ask any of the tour operators for details. Namaste City Tours, for one, have this one too on their list. APRIL 2009 - DISCOVER INDIA 53 AAMCHI MUMBAI Bollywood tour Visit SRK's Mannat and Amitabh's Jalsa THE BOLLYWOOD TOUR entails visits to film shoot locations, a dubbing studio and more sur prisingly a tour of famous Bollywood star resi dences! So SRK's palatial Bandra sea-face villa, Mannat, and Amitabh Bacchhan's Jalsa in Juhu are on the list along with other celeb homes thrown in. Tourists are picked up from the hotel/residence and dropped back. They are shown a television serial shooting or a film shooting at one of the studios or Film City with their professional consultant. They are also shown a technical studio where they learn more about sound recording, video editing, etc. sumptuous buffet lunch is provided by the oper ators at a prominent restaurant which caters to the taste of the tourists. Contact Namaste City Tours for more information on the package. pilgrimage tour Walk barefeet to Siddhi Vinayak temple THE PILGRIMAGE TOUR takes you to all the noted temples and mosgues in Mumbai - the Mumbadevi temple and the Haji Ali tomb being the most popular. The temple tour is interesting as you can attend aartis and get guides on mythological trivia associated with the temple deities. The Siddhivinayak temple dedicated to Ganesha draws devotees who walk tens of kilo metres through Monday night to attend the 5 am aartievery Tuesday! The tourists can experience this phenomenal weekly pooja. The Mahalaxmi temple at Mahalaxmi is dedicated to the goddess of wealth. The annual Navratri or nine-day festi val in her honour is also a part of the temple tours. The fabulous and ornate marble Jain tem ples in Walkeshwar are centuries old and still have artisans working on them! For foreigners, it is an opportunity to see art and sculpture up close in the temple premises. Of course, appro priate dress is a must and in some temples heads have to be covered. Most temples have narrow streets lined with stalls selling bric-a-brac. Con tact Namaste City Tours for seasonal or festive tours covering Ganesh processions and other festi vals if you plan to be in Mumbai on those days. SLUM TOUR

Visit the Bada Gutter Gulli where Slumdog was shot SHANTARAM OR Gregory David started a more up-close and personal sort of tourism when he put Cafe Leopold on the tourist map. Tourists thronged to the Irani cafes, long-standing Mumbai stalwarts of the chaiand maska bun fame. And now the stupendous success of Slumdog Million aire has unleashed what can only be described as a blitzkrieg of slum tours! Lone tour guides take you on a walk through Dharavi, Asia's largest slum, for two hours, and believe me, actually point out the Bada Gutter Gulli where the famous police chase was shot in the Oscar winfttig film! To their credit, 'reality tours' have the best grip on the slum tour. For a mere Rs 400,I got a very indepth and informative tour of Dharavi on foot! The guide, Rakesh Das, was attentive and sensitive to the slum dwellers, and kept the group of six for eigners enthralled with fantastic facts and figures. Practically, all tour and travel people have caught on to this mania and are putting the 'Slum Tour' on their itineraries now. For even a pukka Mumbaikar like me, this tour was eye-opening but with caution, as cameras are strictly prohibited as is interaction with inhabitants. Tour operator: Real ity Tours, contact Krishna at +919820822253 hat ke Wear swadeshi in your search for Gandhi Mahatma Gandhi was a frequent visitor to Mum bai. It was from Mani Bhavan, a two-storeyed house in Laburnum Road that he initiated the Civil Disobedience, Satyagraha, Swadeshi, Khadi and Khilafat movements.The tour takes you to Mani Bhavan, now a small, but engrossing museum that shoutdn't be missed. Gandhi's simple room remains untouched and there's a wonderful photographic record of his life, alongwith dioramas and original documents such as letters he wrote to Hitler and US President Roosevelt. Just a few hundred metres from Mani Bhavan is the Gowalia Tank, where Gandhi held a meeting in August, 1942 to launch the famous 'Ouftjndia Movement'. Gowalia tank is now renamed August Kranti Maidan (August Revolution Square), in commemoration of that meeting. This tour can be taken on all days of the week. Timings are flexible based on visitors' convenience. This tour is usually combined with other places. The costs are based on the number of people doing the tour, and the other preferred sights of visitors. Tour operator: Mumbai Magic, contact Deepa at+91 9867707414 APRIL 2009 - DISCOVER INDIA 55